Respons to "Meow" by Cary Bayless

Meow is a first person story about a main character who seems to have autism and is just trying to learn his way through life. The main character, Cyril, begins by being in a place he is not supposed to be and gets in some trouble for it. He demonstrates his inability to understand through this scene. However, he shows what he is good at as well, which is counting. Cyril then goes to captain d's for a fish sandwich with Earl and Jimmy-Cat. At this point, he finds out Jimmy-Cat is a female and has had a litter of kittens. Once again, Cyril is left trying to understand, but what he does understand is Earl and Cyril are happy to see him, which he is so desperately looking for.

Overall, I think you have an interesting story here. I think you need to develop Cyril's character a little more and define the setting as well. Once you revise those small changes, I think you will have a great story.

As far as Cyril goes, I think he is a very interesting character. I did want some more background information on him. I also wanted him to have more interaction with other characters. I wanted to see more of his inability to understand. I believe this would help the reader believe in the change at the end. I also want to know more about your secondary characters as well, especially Earl. Why does Earl sympathize with Cyril?

The other thing I wanted to see more of was setting. You do a good job of describing certain things, but I want to see more of those. I think your story would benefit a great deal with a stronger sense of setting.

The beginning and the end are good. I think you do a great job introducing the character and showing what exactly you wanted us to see. I wanted to see a more significant change at the end. I think if you tried some of the suggestions above it would make a greater impact with your ending. I think it would be interesting to see what Cyril really learned or if he learned anything because of his disability.

Overall, I really liked the point of view that was used in the story. It has a very strong tone. Although, I would like to see more of Cyril's personality in it, but just a small amount.

In the end, this is a really good story and I hope to read the final version.